“Yes,” replied Sir Arthur, pulling the
lease out of his pocket. “Here it is.
You will see it has not been signed.”

“But you won’t take advantage of a mistake,
surely!” said the Attorney, who seemed to forget
that he had shortly before said that it was fair to
do so.

“I shall not take advantage of you as you would
have done of this honest man,” replied Sir Arthur.
“You shall be paid the value of your house and
land upon condition that you leave the parish within
one month.”

The Attorney knew it was useless to reply. He
therefore turned and sneaked away.

XIII

SUSAN’S BIRTHDAY

“You write a good hand, you can keep accounts,
cannot you?” said Sir Arthur to Mr. Price, as
they walked towards the cottage. “I think
I saw a bill of your little daughter’s drawing
out the other day, which was very neatly written.
Did you teach her to write?”

“No, sir,” said Price, “I can’t
say I did that, for she mostly taught it to herself;
but I taught her a few sums, as far as I knew, on
winter nights when I had nothing else to do.”

“Your daughter shows that she has been well
taught,” said Sir Arthur; “and her good
conduct is a credit to you and her mother.”

“You are very good, very good indeed, sir, to
speak in this way,” said the delighted father.

“But I mean to do more than pay you with words,”
said Sir Arthur. “You are attached to your
own family, perhaps you may become attached to me,
when you know me, and we shall have many chances of
judging one another. I want no one to do my hard
work. I only want a steady, honest man, like
you, to collect my rents, and I hope, Mr. Price, you
will do that for me.”

“I hope, sir,” said Price, with joy and
gratitude glowing in his honest face, “that
I’ll never give you cause to regret your goodness
to me.”

“And what are my sisters about here?”
said Sir Arthur, entering the cottage and going behind
the two ladies, who were busy measuring a pretty colored
calico.

“It is for Susan, my dear brother. I knew
she did not keep that guinea for herself,” said
Miss Somers. “I have just asked her mother
to tell me what became of it. Susan gave it to
her father; but she must not refuse a gown of our
choosing this time; and I am sure she will not, because
her mother, I see, likes it. And, Susan, I hear
that instead of becoming Queen of the May this year,
you were sitting in your mother’s room as she
was ill. Your mother has a little color in her
cheeks now.”

“Oh, ma’am,” said Mrs. Price, “I’m
a different being. Joy, I think, has done it.”

“Then,” said Miss Somers, “I hope
you will be able to come out on your daughter’s
birthday, which, I hear, is on the twenty-fifth of
this month. Make haste and get quite well before
that day, for my brother means that all the boys and
girls of the village shall have a dance on Susan’s
birthday.”